Page 129 of Lost and Stolen Gods
My head whipped back toward the cry. Something was on the bridge with us, a huge dark shadow looming over Mahira.
The breath left my lungs.
A pishacha?
No….
Pashim ran to help them.
I squeezed my thighs around Araz’s waist. “Stop!”
“No.”
“You have to stop. We have to help.”
“I must get you to safety.”
Chaya and Keyton made it to the other side, and a gust had picked up. The vortex was on the way.
Behind us, Pashim and Mahira fought the pishacha.
What had Guru Chandra said? Only a god can kill a pishacha?
They weren’t going to be able to take it down, a god like Guru Mihir or Pooja. But they were still fighting revenants.
“Araz, please, we have to go back and help them.”
“No.”
“They’ll die.”
“But you’ll live.”
Behind us, Pashim and Mahira linked hands, and a blast of energy hit the creature, blowing it off the bridge.
Yes! “They blasted it off the bridge. They’re okayand?—"
Something smashed into us, knocking me off Araz with enough force to fling me back down the bridge. I hit the ground hard enough to see stars.
“Leela!” Araz cried.
I rolled to my feet as something landed a few feet from me. My mace! I scrambled to grab it then ran toward Araz and the revenant he was fighting. I swung my mace back, ready to hit the fucker, but a shadow surged out of nowhere and blocked my path.
Eyes like blood, a maw filled with serrated teeth, the pishacha surrounded me in darkness.
My heart shot into my throat as it lunged. I swiped at it with my mace, feeling a snag and a pull as I made contact with the ethereal material of its being. But the next moment, the mace was ripped from my grasp and sucked into the churning crimson vortex of its throat.
I staggered back, fighting the pull of its ravenous hunger—not for my flesh but for my soul.
Pashim materialized beside me. “Get away from her!” He pushed out his hand, sending a blast of air that knocked the creature off the bridge. He grabbed my hand. “Run!”
Joe and Mahira joined us as we bolted up the bridge. Araz finished off the revenant and spun toward us, eyes blazing in the gloom. “Watch out!”
Darkness descended on us like a smothering cloud.
Joe screamed as he was lifted off his feet and sucked toward the pischacha’s hungry maw.
“No!” I grabbed Joe’s hand as he flew past me.
